ELEDIA@UniTN

New ELEDIA@UniTN Website
The new ELEDIA@UniTN website is available at www.eledia.org/eledia-unitn   This website has been discontinued, please refer to the new website.

Research Partners

 

A*STAR - Agency for Science, Technology and Research - Singapore (Singapore)

CentraleSupélec - Gif-Sur-Yvette (France)

Centro Universitario Difesa Idrogeologica dell'Ambiente Montano (CUDAM) - Trento (Italy)

Colorado School of Mines - Denver (USA)

Create-NET - Trento (Italy)

Delft University of Technology - Delft (Netherlands)

Duke University - North Carolina (USA)

École Normale Supérieure de Cachan - Cachan (France)

Ecole Superieure des Communications de Tunis - Tunisi (Tunis)

ESA-ESTEC - Noordwijk (Netherlands)

Grenoble Images Parole Signal Automatique laboratoire (GIPSA-lab) - Grenoble (France)

Institut Fresnel - Marseille (France)

Istanbul Technical University - Istanbul (Turkey)

Karlsruhe Institute of Technologies - Karlsruhe (Germany)

Kobe University - Kobe (Japan)

National University of Singapore - Singapore (Singapore)

Pennsylvania State University University Park - State College (USA)

Queen Mary, University of London - London (UK)

Télécom ParisTech - Paris (France)

Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth - New Hampshire (USA)

TNO - Innovation For Life - The Hague (Nederlands)

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid - Madrid (Spain)

Università degli Studi "Mediterranea" di Reggio Calabria -  Reggio Calabria (Italy)

Université Catholique de Louvain - Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium)

Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis - Nice (France)

Université de Toulon - Tuolon (France)

Université Paris Sud - Paris (France)

Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense - Nanterre (France)

University of Arkansas - Arkansas (USA)

University of California - San Diego (USA)

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China - Chengdu (China)

University of Hawaii Honolulu - Hawaii (USA)

University of Manchester - Manchester (UK)

University of Missouri Rolla - Missouri (USA)

University of Nagasaki - Nagasaki (Japan)

University of Napoli - Napoli (Italy)

University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia (USA)

University of Pisa - Pisa (Italy)

University of Roma 3 - Roma (Italy)

University of Santiago de Compostela - Santiago de Compostela (Spain)

University of Sheffield - Sheffield (UK)

University of Siena - Siena (Italy)

University of Wisconsin-Madison - Madison (USA)

Organized Special Sessions (Since 2010)

 

Title: Innovative Phased Array Technology and Applications
Conference: 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (APS 2018)
Date: 8-13 July 2018
Where: Boston, Massachusetts (USA)


Title: Emerging Approaches and Future Trends in Electromagnetic Inverse Problems
Conference: 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (APS 2018)
Date: 8-13 July 2018
Where: Boston, Massachusetts (USA)


Title: Inverse Problems: Theory, Techniques, and Applications
Conference: 2018 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2018)
Date: 9-13 April 2018
Where: London (UK)


Title: Compressive Sensing as Applied to Electromagnetics – Advances and New Trends & Applications
Conference: 2017 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (AP-S 2017)
Date: 9-15 July 2017
Where: San Diego (USA)


Title: Theoretical, Methodological, and Technological Advances in Electromagnetic Inverse Scattering
Conference: 2017 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (AP-S 2017)
Date: 9-15 July 2017
Where: San Diego (USA)


Title: Innovative Phased Array Architectures and Beamforming Technology
Conference: 2017 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (AP-S 2017)
Date: 9-15 July 2017
Where: San Diego (USA)


Title: Inverse Scattering Techniques for GPR and Subsurface Imaging
Conference: 2017 International Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society Symposium (ACES 2017)
Date: 26-30 March 2017
Where: Firenze (Italy)


Title: Emerging Strategies for the Synthesis of Innovative Array-Antenna Architectures
Conference: 2017 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP 2017)
Date: 19-24 March 2017
Where: Paris (France)


Title: Decision Support Strategies based on Wireless Sensing and Monitoring for Smart Cities Management
Conference: 2016 IEEE Second International Smart Cities Conference
Date: 12-15 September 2016
Where: Trento (Italy)


Title: Advances in Computational Methods in Electromagnetics, Antenna Design, and Applications
Conference: The 2016 International Conference on High Performance Computing & Simulation Conference
Date: 18-21 July 2016
Where: Innsbruck (Austria)


Title: 4D Arrays as Enabling Technology for Future Wireless Systems
Conference: 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting
Date: 25 June - 1 July 2016
Where: Puerto Rico (Canada)


Title: Industrial applications of metamaterials
Conference: 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting
Date: 25 June - 1 July 2016
Where: Puerto Rico (Canada)


Title: Innovative Array Architectures for Next Generation Radar and Communications Systems
Conference: 2016 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP 2016)
Date: 11-15 April 2016
Where: Davos (Switzerland)


Title: Nature‐Inspired Antenna Systems
Conference: 2015 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence
Date: 8-10 December 2015
Where: Cape Town (South Africa)


Title: Wireless Technologies and Applications for Sensing, Management, and Decision Support
Conference: 2015 IEEE Mediterranean Microwave Symposium (MMS 2105)
Date: 30 November - 2 December 2015
Where: Lecce (Italy)


Title: 4D Antenna Arrays: Theory, Techniques and Applications
Conference: 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (IEEE AP-S 2015)
Date: 19-25 July 2015
Where: Vancouver (Canada)


Title: Metatronics: Theory, Methods, and Applications
Conference: 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (AP-S 2015)
Date: 19-25 July 2015
Where: Vancouver (Canada)


Title: Non-Uniform and Sparse Antenna Arrays - Innovative Concepts and Technological Solutions
Conference: 2015 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP 2015)
Date: 12-17 April 2015
Where: Lisbon (Portugal)


Title: Advanced Nature-Inspired Optimization for New Generation Antenna Devices
Conference: 2014 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence for Communication Systems and Networks (CIComms'14), a part of the IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (2014 IEEE SSCI)
Date: 9–12 December 2014
Where: Orlando (Florida - USA)


Title: Compressive Sensing for Antenna Measurements and EM Applications
Conference: 2014 IEEE International Conference on Antenna Measurements & Applications (IEEE CAMA 2014)
Date: 16-19 November 2014
Where: Antibes Juan-les-Pins (France)


Title: Recent Advances on Inverse & Imaging Techniques
Conference: 2014 IEEE International Conference on Antenna Measurements & Applications - Focus on Antenna Systems (IEEE CAMA 2014)
Date: 16-19 November 2014
Where: Antibes Juan-les-Pins (France)


Title: Time‐modulation as the 4th Dimension for Emerging Microwave Communication and Sensing Array Systems
Conference: 2014 European Microwave Conference
Date: 5‐10 October 2014
Where: Rome (Italy)


Title: Time-domain Arrays for Innovative Communication and Sensing Systems
Conference: 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation
Date: 6-12 July 2014.
Where: Memphis (Tennesee, USA)


Title: Advanced Design and Optimization Techniques for Phased Arrays
Conference: 2014 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP 2014)
Date: 6-11 April 2014
Where: The Hague (Netherlands)


Title: Non-uniform arrays – from concepts to implementation
Conference: 2014 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP 2014)
Date: 6-11 April 2014
Where: The Hague (Netherlands)


Title: Inverse Scattering Problems: Theory and Applications
Conference: 34th Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS2013 in Stockholm)
Date: 12-15 August 2013
Where: Stockholm (Sweden)


Title: Non-Uniform Array Antennas
Conference: 2013 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2013)
Date: 8-12 April 2013
Where: Gotheburg (Sweden)


Title: Advanced and Emerging Applications of Inverse Scattering Techniques
Conference: 2013 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2013)
Date: 8-12 April 2013
Where: Gotheburg (Sweden)


Title: 4D-Arrays for New Generation Reconfigurable Systems
Conference: 2013 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2013)
Date: 8-12 April 2013
Where: Gotheburg (Sweden)


Title: New Approaches in Radar Antenna Array Design
Conference: European Microwave Week (EuMW 2012)
Date: 28 October - 02 November 2012
Where: Amsterdam (Netherlands)


Title: Theoretical, Algorithmic, and Technological Advances in Electromagnetic Inverse Scattering
Conference: 2012 IEEE AP-S International Symposium and USNC/CNC/URSI Radio Science Meeting
Date: 8-14 July 2012.
Where: Chicago (Illinois - USA)


Title: Compressive Sensing in Electromagnetics – State of the Art and Recent Advances
Conference: 2012 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2012)
Date: 26-30 March 2012
Where: Prague (Czech Republic)


Title: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) for Real-Time and Distributed Remote Sensing
Conference: 2012 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2012)
Date: 26-30 March 2012
Where: Prague (Czech Republic)


Title: Non-uniform Array Antennas
Conference: 2012 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2012)
Date: 26-30 March 2012
Where: Prague (Czech Republic)


Title: Reconfigurable Antenna Arrays – Theory, Implementations, and Applicaions
Conference: 2012 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2012)
Date: 26-30 March 2012
Where: Prague (Czech Republic)


Title: Advances on Synthesis and Analysis of Large-Scale Arrays
Conference: International Conference on Electromagnetics in Advance Applications (ICEAA - IEEE AWPT 2011)
Date: 12-17 September 2011
Where: Torino (Italy)


Title: Time Modulated Antenna Arrays
Conference: Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS2011 in Suzhou)
Date: 12-16 September 2011
Where: Suzhou (China)


Title: Compressive Sensing as Applied to Electromagnetics
Conference: 2011 IEEE AP-S International Symposium and USNC/CNC/URSI Radio Science Meeting
Date: July 3-8 2011
Where: Spokane (Washington - USA)


Title: Emerging Strategies and Innovative Algorithms for the Solution of Inverse Scattering Problems
Conference: Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS2011 in Marrakesh)
Date: 20-23 March 2011
Where: Marrakesh (Morocco)


Title: Emerging Modalities and Novel Applications of Inverse Problems in Electromagnetic
Conference: Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS2011 in Marrakesh)
Date: 20-23 March 2011
Where: Marrakesh (Morocco)


Title: Analysis of Electromagnetic Wireless Systems for Solar Power Transmission
Conference: 2010 IEEE AP-S International Symposium and USNC/CNC/URSI Radio Science Meeting
Date: 11-17 July 2010
Where: Toronto (Ontario - Canada)


Title: Antenna Array Synthesis - Theory, Algorithms, and Applications
Conference: Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS2010)
Date: 5-8 July 2010
Where: Cambridge (Massachusetts - USA)


Title: Qualitative and Quantitative Inverse Scattering Methods for Microwave Imaging Applications – Emerging Methods and Algorithms (Part I and Part II)
Conference: 26th International Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics (ACES 2010)
Date: 26-29 April 2010
Where: Tampere (Finland)

Special Issues


Title: Multiscale and Multiphysics Computation for Metamaterials - Theory and Applications
Journal: IEEE Journal on Multiscale and Multiphysics Computational Techniques
Guest Editor: Prof. G. Oliveri and Prof. F. Bilotti
Year: 2017


Title: Metamateterial-by-Design: Theory, Methods, and Applications
Journal: EPJ Applied Metamaterials
Guest Editor: Prof. A. Massa and Prof. G. Oliveri
Year: 2016


Title: Compressive Sensing as Applied to Electromagnetics
Journal: IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
Guest Editor: Prof. A. Massa and Prof. F. L. Teixeira
Year: 2014


Title: Advances in Antenna Array Processing for Radar
Journal: International Journal of Antennas and Propagation
Guest Editors: Prof. A. Massa, Prof. H. Hu, Prof. H. Qi, Prof. M. Villano, and Prof. A. S. Khwaja
Year: 2013


Title: Reconfigurable Electromagnetics through Metamaterials
Journal: International Journal of Antennas and Propagation
Guest Editors: Dr. G. Oliveri, Prof. D. H. Werner, Prof. F. Bilotti, and Prof. C. Craeye
Year: 2013


Title: Microwave Medical Imaging
Journal: IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
Guest Editors: Prof. A. Massa,  Prof. S. Hagness, and Prof. E. C. Fear
Year: 2011


Title: Microwave Imaging and Inverse Scattering Techniques
Journal: Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications
Guest Editors: Prof. A. Massa
Year: 2003

Smart Electrical Grids

 
 
The complexity of future cities and the increasing importance of reducing environmental impact of urbanization is driving a great interest on ICT methodologies and technologies able to increase energy efficiency, enable more flexible energy management policies, as well as support fast reconfigurability and adaptation of the electrical grids to the evolution of the context (i.e., variations and oscillations in the distributed energy production/consumption). In this framework, several open challenges still needs to be addressed and potential solutions need to be experimentally validated specifically concerning the capability of ICT techniques to reliably manage electrical grid through resilient, real-time learning methodologies. The aim of this research area is therefore to propose innovative ICT approaches integrating learning-by-example methods and optimization techniques to realize next-generation real-time smart and cognitive grid solutions.
   
Smart grid and smart building management

Bidirectional interaction among multiple elements of a Smart Grid infrastructure

Architecture example of a highly complex smart grid
 
Members of the ELEDIA Research Center are working on the development of several innovative approaches for the design of innovative smart grid solutions, including
  • energy efficiency tools in smart buidlings through combination of smart distributed sensing technologies and multi-objective evolutionary optimization methods.
  • integration of methodologies for energy production forecast and global optimization tools to enable pro-active cognitive grid management.
  • game theory approaches as applied to smart grids including cooperative and non-cooperative prosumers.
The research activities carried out in this area are specifically focused on the study, development, prototyping, and testing of smart grid solutions in controlled environments as well as in real-world scenarios including large buildings and urban areas.

Power consumption profiles prediction and optimization

Simulation of smart grids for numerical performance analysis

 

Keywords: Smart grids, Cognitive grids, Smart Buildings, Energy Efficiency through Distributed Monitoring, Energy Production Forecast and Control

 

Additional Material

TEW-IP Project


Recent Projects

  • Project "Edifici a Zero Consumo Energetico in Distretti Urbani Intelligenti (EEB)", Bando Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Universita' e della Ricerca, Cluster Tecnologici Nazionali, Tecnologie per le Smart Communities, CTN01_00034, Contact Point Prof. Andrea Massa, 2014-2016.
  • Project "Sviluppo di moduli software del coordinatore Zigbee e di un bundle OSGi per il profilo energy@home operante su home gateway ADB", ADB Broadband, Coordinator Prof. Andrea Massa, 2011.
  • Project "Telecontrollo Wireless Illuminazione Pubblica (TEW-IP)", Provincia Autonoma di Trento, Agenzia Provinciale per l'Energia (APE), L.P. 14/1980, Bando 2010, Interventi Dimostrativi per Il Risparmio Energetico e l'Utilizzo di Fonti Rinnovabili, Coordinator Dr. Giacomo Oliveri, 2012-2016.

See Also

  • F. Viani, F. Robol, A. Polo, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Wireless architectures for heterogeneous sensing in smart home applications - concepts and real implementations," Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 101, no. 11, pp. 2381-2396, Nov. 2013.
    DOI: 10.1109/JPROC.2013.2266858
  • F. Viani, M. Salucci, F. Robol, E. Giarola, and A. Massa, "WSNs as enabling tool for next generation smart systems," Atti della XIX Riunione Nazionale di Elettromagnetismo, (Roma), Sept. 10-14 2012
   

 

Wireless Energy Management and Wireless Power Transmission Systems

 
 
The concept of wireless power transmission (WPT) and Wireless Energy Management through microwave beams dates back to the sixties, when it was proposed and investigated for its potential applications to the design of Solar Power Satellites (SPS). However, in the recent years the capability of WPT systems to wirelessly transfer energy has gathered an increasing attention for its potential application to several other scenarios in which "Power-on-Demand" concept is required, including powering electrical vehicles and pervasively charging sensor, phones, and laptops. In this scenario, innovative design approaches are required for the development of efficient WPT systems, because of their specific constraints which are fundamentally different from those of classical wireless applications (usually aimed at the transmission of information). This is specifically true for the design of WPT transmitting arrays, whose aim is the maximization of the beam efficiency (i.e., ratio of power transmitted towards the WPT receiver over total radiated power) rather than the maximization of the array gain or the minimization of the mainlobe width (as it happens in traditional radar and communication systems). Accordingly, innovative design approaches are of paramount importance when dealing with the design of WPT transmitting arrays.
   
Wireless power transmission and wireless energy management systems for ground-to-ground and ground-to-air applications

Schematic diagram of the main blocks of a long-range WPT system

Prototype of rectenna array comprising four receiving elements (c) ELEDIA Reseach Center 2012

Functional diagram of wireless-fed sensor for industrial applications
 
Members of the ELEDIA Research Center are working on the development of several innovative approaches for the design of wireless power transmission systems, including
  • Transmitting fully-populated arrays for maximum power efficiency through analytical strategies.
  • Sparse arrays with maximum beam efficiency.
  • Clustered arrays for WPT systems.
  • Rectennas and wireless power collection systems.
The research activities carried out in this area are specifically focused on the study, development, prototyping, and testing of innovative Wireless Power applications with the purpose of bridging the gap between the already available theoretical results and designs and the realization of reliable technologies based on such concepts.
   

Wireless power transmitting array with focusing reflector (c) ELEDIA Research Center 2012

Keywords: Wireless power transmission, antenna array, beam collection efficiency, phased array, optimization techniques


Recent Projects

  • Project "Radio frequency power scavenging for telemetry sensor management (ROTATe)", Ansaldo Energia, Coordinator Prof. Andrea Massa, 2011-2012.

See Also

  • A. Massa, G. Oliveri, F. Viani, and P. Rocca, "Array designs for long-distance wireless power transmission - State-of-the-art and innovative solutions," Proceedings of the IEEE - Special Issue on "Wireless Power Technology, Transmission and Applications," vol. 101, no. 6, pp. 1464-1481, June 2013.
    doi:10.1109/JPROC.2013.2245491
  • G. Oliveri, L. Poli, and A. Massa, "Maximum efficiency beam synthesis of radiating planar arrays for wireless power transmission," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., pp. 2490-2499, vol. 61, no. 5, May 2013.
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2013.2241714
  • G. Franceschetti, P. Rocca, F. Robol, and A. Massa, "Design and optimization of efficient rectenna systems for space solar power applications," International Conference on Electromagnetics and Advanced Applications (ICEAA 2012) - Invited paper, Session title: "Wireless power transmission," Cape Town, South Africa, Sep. 2-7, 2012.
  • G. Franceschetti, P. Rocca, F. Robol, and A. Massa, "Innovative rectenna design for space solar power systems," IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Workshop Series on "Innovative Wireless Power Transmission: Technologies, Systems, and Applications" (IMWS-IWPT2012), Kyoto, Japan, pp. 151-153, May 10-11, 2012.
    doi:10.1109/IMWS.2012.6215773
  • G. Oliveri, P. Rocca, F. Viani, F. Robol, and Andrea Massa, "Latest advances and innovative solutions in antenna array synthesis for microwave wireless power transmission," IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Workshop Series on "Innovative Wireless Power Transmission: Technologies, Systems, and Applications" (IMWS-IWPT2012), Kyoto, Japan, pp. 71-73, May 10-11, 2012.
    doi:10.1109/IMWS.2012.6215822
  • G. Oliveri, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "Array antenna architectures for solar power satellites and wireless power transmission," XXX URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium of International Union of Radio Science (URSI GASS 2011) - Invited paper, Session title: "Solar power satellites and wireless power transmission," Istanbul, Turkey, Aug. 13-20, 2011.
    doi:10.1109/URSIGASS.2011.6050552
  • G. Franceschetti, A. Massa, and P. Rocca, "Innovative antenna systems for efficient microwave power collection," IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Workshop Series on "Innovative Wireless Power Transmission: Technologies, Systems, and Applications" (IMWS-IWPT2011), Uji (Kyoto), Japan, pp. 275-278, May 12-13, 2011 (Invited paper).
    doi:10.1109/IMWS.2011.5877080
  • P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Innovative array designs for wireless power transmission," IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Workshop Series on "Innovative Wireless Power Transmission: Technologies, Systems, and Applications" (IMWS-IWPT2011), Uji (Kyoto), Japan, pp. 279-282, May 12-13, 2011 (Invited paper).
    doi:10.1109/IMWS.2011.5877110
   

 

Energy Efficiency and Power Management for Real-time and Distributed Monitoring of Appliances in Residential and Industrial Scenarios.

 
 
Nowadays Energy Efficiency and Power Management are two topics very discussed, in particular because the price of energy increases continuosly, and is a commodity of primary importance. Power management allow the control and monitoring of devices and appliances, the use of optimization for energy saving, to have a real-time smart pricing and peak load curtailment. To this end, continuous power monitoring to provide energy efficiency has to be implemented by means of innovative technologies, in order to have a low cost system easy to deploy and use.
   
Residential and Industrial Scenarios (Home, Universities, Schools, Hotels, Factories, etc.)
    
 

Smart Plug for Power Metering

 
Distributed Monitoring of Appliances
 

Members of the ELEDIA Research Center implemented a domotic application for the Power Monitoring that permitt to have a collection and aggregation of diagnostic info about power consumption and additional functionalities. This system has the advantages of distributed sensing using an innovative technology like Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). This technology allow the system:

  1. to be not infrastructured, this permit to have less cost to deploy and mantain active the system;
  2. be able to have a continious real-time monitoring af all the appliances;
  3. be able to show the state of the appliance on a Graphical User Interface;
  4. be able to permit the user to interact with the Network;

Research activities in the field of Energy Efficiency and Power Management have been mainly focused on the processing of the information about the energy consumption, using Optimization Algorithms in order to avoid waste of energy, minimizing the total energy consumption. Moreover, ad-hoc Optimization Algorithms are used also to minimize the cost of energy, by concentrate the use of appliances of a building in the time slot of the day where the energy is more economic.

 

Wireless Architecture of a Residential Deployment

Keywords: Smart grids, Power Management, Smart Buildings, Energy Efficiency, Wireless Sensor Network, Distributed Power Metering


Recent Projects

  • Project "Edifici a Zero Consumo Energetico in Distretti Urbani Intelligenti (EEB)", Bando Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Universita' e della Ricerca, Cluster Tecnologici Nazionali, Tecnologie per le Smart Communities, CTN01_00034, Contact Point Prof. Andrea Massa, 2014-2016.
  • Project "Sviluppo di moduli software del coordinatore Zigbee e di un bundle OSGi per il profilo energy@home operante su home gateway ADB", ADB Broadband, Coordinator Prof. Andrea Massa, 2011.

See Also

  • F. Viani, F. Robol, A. Polo, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Wireless architectures for heterogeneous sensing in smart home applications - concepts and real implementations," Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 101, no. 11, pp. 2381-2396, Nov. 2013.
    DOI: 10.1109/JPROC.2013.2266858
  • F. Viani, M. Salucci, F. Robol, E. Giarola, and A. Massa, "WSNs as enabling tool for next generation smart systems," Atti della XIX Riunione Nazionale di Elettromagnetismo, (Roma), Sept. 10-14 2012.

  • ELEDIA Research Center, Demo "Smart Energy Management" for energy peak load reduction through game theory. Available in Demo Gallery. 
   

 

Cooperative Robotics

 
 
Cooperative Robotics is a topic very discussed in the scientific community, because this type of systems can give the possibility to explore, in a remote way, a dangerous area where the human presence could be very hazardous. The connection of a robotic platform with a Wireless Sensor Network's (WSN) node, give to every robot the possibility to communicate with the other robot of the system, so that they can cooperate to find the goal of the system in a better way and with less time. A Cooperative Robotics system can be used to explore an area, search a target in this area, create a map, ecc... The integration of Optimization Technics in the system gives more autonomy and more reliability to the Robotics Platform, by improving the calculation made by every robot of the system.
   
Monitoring and research in a dangerous environment.

Swarm Of Bees
Robot Swarm

Robotic Platform Developped
 
Members of the ELEDIA Research Center have developed an innovative Robot Swarm able to find, in a research area without the presence of any infrastructure, the zone where a parameter monitored assumes his maximum value, and report it to an external pc-host. The swarm is composed by more robots that cooperate to find the area with the maximum value of the monitored parameter. The movement of the robots are controlled by a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, an optimization algorithm that follow the logic of how a swarm of bee reach the area where there is more flowers in a grass. The research activities carried out in this area have been focused on the improvement of the movement and the autonomy of the robot in order to reach the solution of the problem in the best way. Moreover, the study and the implementation of other type of robot swarm's strategy in order to enlarge the goal of the system, for example using the sensors mounted in this robot in order to create a map of the research area.

 
Fitness Progression During the PSO

 
Position of Pbest and Gbest During the PSO's Iterations

Keywords: Robot Swarm, Wireless Sensor Network, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)


See Also
  • F. Viani, M. Donelli, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "A mobile wireless sensor network for collaborative tasks achievement by means autonomous robot robot swarm," Proc. 2010 IEEE AP-S International Symposium, Toronto, ON, Canada, July 11-17, 2010.
   

 

Device-Free (non-collaborative) detection, localization and tracking for security purposes

 
 
Localization of targets by means of radio signals has been widely investigated in the last decade. In this framework, the main efforts have been devoted to the development of ad-hoc systems, requiring each target to be equipped with a radio transmitting device, requiring its active collaboration in the localization process. However, when dealing with people, the need of wearable active devices limits the applicability of wireless tracking systems, expecially when in the case of highly non-cooperative subjects, such as intruders or housebreakers. In similar scenarios, intrusion detection and tracking inside a surveilled area can't be always achieved by means of classical CCTV or infrared trip-wire based systems, because those techniques will eventually fail in the presence of enviromental obstacles and barriers such as darkness, walls, dense smoke, and so on. One of the principal advantages of passive localization by means of wireless signals is represented by the ability of radio waves to easily penetrate a great variety of obstacles, allowing wider coverage at lower costs, and enabling the exploitation of pre-existing infrastructures, without the need of ad-hoc hardware. In fact, connections among wireless devices sharing information and services can be exploited to detect, classify and communicate rapidly and safely any possible threat represented by presence and movement of unknown targets, enabling a pervasive and increased level of surveillance for people and property protection.
   
Homeland security, surveillance, property protection

 

 
Real-time position and trajectory estimation

 
Home Surveillance
 
ELEDIA Research Center is investigating innovative procedures for localization and tracking of non-collaborative passive targets measuring only the strength of the RF signals transmitted inside a wireless infrastructure, used to sense the surrounding environment. The persons lying and moving within the monitored area interact with the electromagnetic waves and these perturbations are processed by a suitable inversion strategy to determine the equivalent source, able to model the presence and the position of potential intruders. A customized learning-by-examples (LBE) strategy is exploited in order to build a security system satisfying key-requirements such as flexibility and ability of real-time detection and tracking. This latter feature is achieved by means of computationally effective processing of the electromagnetic perturbations generated by non-cooperative targets moving throughout the areas where wireless infrastructures exist.

 
The Basic Idea

 
Probability Map of Target Position

Keywords: Intrusion detection, Surveillance, Homeland security

Additional Material

WaLK Project


See Also
  • F. Viani, M. Donelli, M. Salucci, P. Rocca, A. Massa, "Opportunistic exploitation of wireless infrastructures for homeland security", IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (APSURSI), 2011.
    doi:10.1109/APS.2011.5997177
  • F. Viani, L. Lizzi, P. Rocca, M. Benedetti, M. Donelli, A. Massa, "Object tracking through RSSI measurements in wireless sensor networks", IEEE Electronic Letters, vol. 44, no. 10, pp. 653-654, May 2008.
    doi:10.1049/el:20080509
  • F. Viani, P. Rocca, M. Benedetti, G. Oliveri, A.Massa, "Electromagnetic passive localization and tracking of moving targets in a WSN-infrastructured environment"
    doi:10.1088/0266-5611/26/7/074003
  • F. Viani, M. Martinelli, L. Ioriatti, L. Lizzi, G. Oliveri, P. Rocca, A. Massa, "Real-time indoor localization and tracking of passive targets by means of wireless sensor networks", Antennas and propagation Society International Symposium, 2009.
    doi:10.1109/APS.2009.5172317
   

 

Distributed Monitoring and Actuation

 
 
Remote Monitoring Systems area very used nowadays for many applications like smart environment or domotic. Nevertheless these systems do not perform any kind of action. They only sense the environment gathering information to a remote unit for successive processing or statistical analysis. Here the key concept is actuation which allows to directly interact with the sensed and monitored area. The acquired data are directly used to take decisions and change the environment accordingly.
   
Smart environment, cooperative systems, supported agriculture.

Energy Saving
Apple Orchard

ELEDIA prototype of wireless sensors for smart farming
 

Members of the ELEDIA Research Center have developed an actuation system specifically thought to assist the growing of an apple orchard. In particular different sensors have been used to sense some parameters identified to be the key ones for taking decisions regarding the amount of water to irrigate the trees. The above mentioned parameters are humidity, temperture and tree diamenter. In addition humidity and temperature are acquired at different depth in the ground. The main feature of the proposed suystem are:

  1. water saving;
  2. autonomy and self-government;
  3. ease of use thaks to a graphical interface.

The experimental activity carried out for this specific project can be easily applied to many different scenarios. The collected data have to be correctly managed and processed in order to perform the desired actuation.

 

Closed-Loop Control Strategy "Sensing-Processing-Actuation"

Keywords: Actuation, Smart Environment, Assisted Agriculture.

Additional Material

AGRI-WSN Project
Season Project


See Also
  • M. Martinelli, L. Ioriatti, F. Viani, M. Benedetti, and A. Massa, "A WSN-based solution for precision farm purposes," 2009 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium,IGARSS 2009, vol. 5, no., pp. V-469-V-472, 12-17 July 2009
    doi:10.1109/IGARSS.2009.5417630
  • F. Viani, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Pervasive remote sensing through WSNs," 2012 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation,EUCAP 2012, Prague, 26-30 March 2012
  • B. Majone, F. Viani, E. Filippi, A. Bellin, A. Massa, G. Toller, F. Robol, and M. Salucci, “Wireless sensor network deployment for monitoring soil moisture dynamics at the field scale,” Procedia Environmental Sciences, vol. 19, pp. 426-235, 2013.
    doi:10.1016/j.proenv.2013.06.049

 

Selected Publications

Please find below some selected publication authored by members of the ELEDIA Research Center. More papers can be found at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/guesthome.jsp 

Evolutionary Algorithms:

  • P. Rocca, M. Benedetti, M. Donelli, D. Franceschini, and A. Massa, “Evolutionary optimization as applied to inverse problems,” Inverse Problems – 25th Year Special Issue of Inverse Problems, Invited Topical Review, vol. 25, 123003, pp. 1-41, doi: 10.1088/0266-5611/25/12/123003, December 2009. Download Last Draft.
  • P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, “Differential Evolution as applied to electromagnetics,” IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 38-49, Feb. 2011. Download Last Draft.

Wireless Sensor Networks

  • F. Viani, P. Rocca, M. Benedetti, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, “Electromagnetic passive localization and tracking of moving targets in a WSN-infrastructured environment,” Inverse Problems - Special Issue on “Electromagnetic Inverse Problems: Emerging Methods and Novel Applications,” vol. 26, 074003, pp. 1-15, doi: 10.1088/0266-5611/26/7/074003, March 2010. Download Last Draft.
  • F. Viani, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, D. Trinchero, and A. Massa, “Localization, tracking, and imaging of targets in wireless sensor networks: An invited review,” Radio Science, Solicited Review Paper, vol. 46, RS5002, doi:10.1029/2010RS004561, 2011. Download Last Draft.

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Compressive Sensing as applied to Electromagnetic Inverse Scattering

 
 
The recontruction of the dielectric properties of unknow targets within an inaccessible investigation domain starting from non-invasive measurements of the electromagnetic field, it is of fundamental importance in various applications such as biomedical imaging, geophysical prospecting and non-destructive testing. Unfortunatly, since the aquired data of the electromagnetic field are usually limited and affected by errors and noise and the inverse problem results to be non-linear and ill-posed, it is quite difficult to achieve reliable and accurate solutions without a smart use of the information on the problem at hand. In this framework, Compressive Sensing approaches which exploit the a-priori knowledge on the unknowns' sparseness are currently object of study for the solution of inverse scattering problem thanks to their reliability, effectiveness and robustness to the noise.
   
Biomedical Imaging, geophysical prospecting, non-destructive testing


 
 
According to the CS theory, an unknown/signal phenomena can be enforced to be compressible with respect to suitable expansion bases (i.e., the corresponding vectors of expansion coefficients have few nonzero entries): exploiting the sparseness of the scatterer objects inside the investigation domain, members of ELEDIA Research Center have developed several techniques based on the CS theory aimed at reconstruct the phisical features of the objects under investigation, starting from the measurement of the elctromagnetic scattered fields. In particular, a Bayesian Compressive Sampling (BCS) approach has been considered: a "probabilistic" regularization has been used to reformulate the original inverse problem as a BCS one, and both the Contrast Source formulation and the Born & Rytov approximations has been investigated, exploiting either tranverse magnetic (TM) or transverse electric (TE) wave polarizations, for the reconstrution of the dielectric and conductivity properties of the unknown objects.
Cross-Shaped Object - BCS Reconstructed Profile
L-Shaped Object - BCS Reconstructed Profile

Keywords: Biomedical Imaging, Inverse Scattering, Compressive Sensing, Bayesian Compressive Sensing


See Also
  • G. Oliveri, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "A Bayesian-compressive-sampling-based inversion for imaging sparse scatterers," IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., vol. 49, no. 10, pp. 3993-4006, Oct. 2011.
    doi:10.1109/TGRS.2011.2128329
  • L. Poli, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Microwave imaging within the first-order Born approximation by means of the contrast-field Bayesian compressive sensing," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 60, no. 6, pp. 2865-2879, Jun. 2012.
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2012.2194676
  • G. Oliveri, L. Poli, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "Bayesian compressive optical imaging within the Rytov approximation," Optics Letters, vol. 37, no. 10, pp. 1760-1762, 2012.
    doi:10.1364/OL.37.001760
  • S. Ji, Y. Xue, and L. Carin, "Bayesian compressive sensing," IEEE Trans. Signal Process., vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 2346-2356, 2008. 10.1109/TSP.2007.914345L. Poli, G. Oliveri, F. Viani, and A. Massa, "MT-BCS-based microwave imaging approach through minimum-norm current expansion," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 61, no. 9, pp. 4722-4732, Sept. 2013.
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2013.2265254
  • L. Poli, G. Oliveri, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "Bayesian compressive sensing approaches for the reconstruction of two-dimensional sparse scatterers under TE illumination," IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing, vol. 51, no. 5, pp. 2920-2936, May. 2013.
    doi:10.1109/TGRS.2012.2218613
  • L. Poli, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Imaging sparse metallic cylinders through a Local Shape Function Bayesian Compressive Sensing approach," Journal of Optical Society of America A, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 1261-1272, 2013.
    doi:10.1364/JOSAA.30.001261
  • F. Viani, L. Poli, G. Oliveri, F. Robol, and A. Massa, "Sparse scatterers imaging through approximated multitask compressive sensing strategies," Microwave Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 55, no. 7, pp. 1553-1558, Jul. 2013.
    doi:10.1002/mop.27612
   

 

DoA estimation by means of Bayesian Compressive Sensing

 
 
The efficient exploitation of the available mobile communication channels is a very important issue, which is motivated by the ever-growing number of users that can interact at the same time with a base station. For this reason, it is necessary to develop methods which are able to improve the performances of transmitting/receiving systems in mobile communication networks. Toward this end, the use of antenna array can provide higher system capacities by providing narrow beam toward the user of interest, while nulling other users not of interest. Another advantage of Antenna Arrays is that the multipath fading (i.e. the reception of multiple copies of the same signal due to multiple reflections) can be eliminated by nulling multipath signals. In order to implement such kinds of strategies, the first step is the estimation of the direction of arrival (DoA) of the desired and undesired signals impinging on the antenna array. The information gathered in this step are fundamental to drive the successive beamforming process.
   
Smart Antennas, Radio Astronomy, Search and Rescue Services, Location Systems, Homing systems, Warning systems


 

Smart Atennas
Target Tracking Radar System
 

The reasearch activities of the Members of the ELEDIA Research Center are aimed at the development of innovative methdologies for the solution of the DoA estimation problem. In particular the under-development strategies are based on the exploitation of Bayesian Compressive Sensing (BCS) for the estimation of the received spatial signal spectrum. The main advantages of this method are:

  1. It enables the achievement of accurate estimations even with a limited number of snapshots, making this techniques suitable for real-time applications.
  2. The performances of the method are not affected by the correlation among the impinging signals, making this method approprate for multipath scenarios.
  3. Statistical assumptions on the impinging signal are not necessary.
  4. The knowledge of the number of signals is not needed.

 
Large Number Of Signals

 
Closely Spaced Sources

Keywords: Direction-of-Arrival estimation, Bayesian Compressive Sampling (BCS), Smart Antennas.


See Also
  • G. Oliveri, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "A Bayesian-Compressive-Sampling-Based Inversion for Imaging Sparse Scatterers," IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 49, no. 10, pp. 3993-4006, Oct. 2011
    doi:10.1109/TGRS.2011.2128329
  • M. Carlin, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, F. Viani, and A. Massa, "Directions-of-Arrival Estimation through Bayesian Compressive Sensing strategies," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 61, no. 7, pp. 3828-3838, Jul. 2013.doi:10.1109/TAP.2013.2256093
  • M. Carlin, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Bayesian Compressive Sensing as applied to Direction-of-Arrival estimation in planar arrays," Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering, vol. 2013, pp. 1-13, 2013.
    doi:10.1155/2013/245867
  • M. Carlin, P. Rocca, "A Bayesian compressive sensing strategy for direction-of-arrival estimation," 6th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2012), Prague, Czech Republic, pp. 1508-1509, 26-30 Mar. 2012.
    doi:10.1109/EuCAP.2012.6206667
  • M. Carlin, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Multi-task Bayesian compressive sensing for direction-of-arrival estimation," IEEE International Conference on Wireless Information Technology and Systems (ICWITS), Maui, Hawaii, USA, pp. 1-4, 11-16 Nov. 2012.
    doi:10.1109/ICWITS.2012.6417819
   

 

Automatic Design of Microwave Components through Evolutionary Algorithms

 


 
 
The design of microwave components for Electromagnetic Compatibility purposes (e.g., filters, splitters, combiners, circulators, etc.) is a challenging task because of the requirements that they must satisfy to fit industrial requirements. In such a context, EMI (ElectroMagnetic Interference) filters aimed at attenuating the signals interfering on the input/output connection ports of a device are among the most employed devices from the practical viewpoint. Unfortunately, despite the importance of such components at the industrial level, general purpose design algorithms able to effectively with multiple concurring objectives and constraints are still not available. Accordingly, efficient and effective methodologies enabling the fast design of arbitrary EMI filters are of great importance for advanced manufacturing and processing purposes in the Electromagnetic Compatibility industry.
   
Industrial Electromagnetic Compatibility

 
Example Of EMI Filter


ELEDIA Design Tool
 

Members of the ELEDIA Research Center have worked at the development of unsupervised design approaches for the synthesis of filters able to suppress the unwanted radio-disturbances as well as to satisfy the other design requirements, including

  1. insertion loss due to common mode and differential mode currents and voltages;
  2. input and output impedance;
  3. maximal leakage and self-power-consumption current.

The synthesis procedures exploit Evolutionary Algorithms in combination with circuit simulators and equivalent models of the used components. Particular importance is given to the ad-hoc design for specific problems, to the accurate performances prediction of the synthesized device, to the direct realization of the device starting from the results obtained during the synthesis procedure.
   

Keywords: Electromagnetic Compatibility


See Also
  • R. Azaro, L. Ioriatti, M. Martinelli, and A. Massa, "Automatic design and optimisation of EMI filter using commercially-available components," Electron. Lett. , vol. 43, no. 6, pp.15-16, March 2007
    doi: 10.1049/el:20073923
   

 

Multifunction Arrays for Space Applications

 
 
Shared aperture antennas are of great interest in modern wireless systems for communications, detection, location and remote sensing because of the need to realise multiple functions in a limited space. In this framework, aperture arrays of intermixed elements provide interesting performances in terms of hardware complexity, aperture efficiency and flexibility. However, each array of an interleaved arrangement usually shows a lower gain and a higher peak sidelobe level (PSL) than the corresponding non-interlaced design. Accordingly, numerically efficient design approaches able to control the sidelobe level of shared aperture antenna arrays are of great interest from the applicative viewpoint.
   
Satellite systems for wireless communications, biomedical instruments, antenna arrays for environmental monitoring and observation, reconfigurable polarization systems.

 

 
Interleaved Array Geometry For Pulse-Echo Application
 

Members of the ELEDIA Research Center have introduced analytical design approaches for the synthesis of fully-interleaved arrays (two-function of multi-function) with controlled sidelobes. Such methodologies are based on the exploitation of Almost Difference Sets (ADS). The enabling features of these binary sequences include

  1. their design efficiency, which owes to their analytical nature and their availability for arrangements comprising several thousands elements;
  2. their complementarity property, which means that the ADS predictable autocorrelation features (and relative sidelobe control properties) hold true for all synthesized beams;

The research activities carried out in this area have been focused on the introduction, study, and development of ADS-based design techniques for linear and planar interleaved arrays for several different applications (including biomedical imaging, pulse-echo arrays, and reconfigurable polarization systems).
   

Synthesized Pulse-Echo Beam Patterns With Different Steering Angles

Keywords: Thinned arrays, Almost Difference Sets, Space, Satellite Communications, Analytic Design


See Also
  • G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "ADS-based array design for 2-D and 3-D ultrasound imaging," IEEE Trans. Ultrasonics Ferroelectrics Freq. Control, vol. 57, no. 7, pp. 1568-1582, Jul. 2010.
    doi:10.1109/TUFFC.2010.1587
  • G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Fully interleaved linear arrays with predictable sidelobes based on almost difference sets," IET Radar Sonar Navigat., vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 649-661, Oct. 2010.
    doi:10.1049/iet-rsn.2009.0186
  • G. Oliveri, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "Interleaved linear arrays with difference sets," Electronics Letters , vol.46, no.5, pp.323-324, March 4 2010
    doi: 10.1049/el.2010.2255
  • G. Oliveri, L. Lizzi, F. Robol, and A. Massa, "Polarization-agile ADS-interleaved planar arrays," PIER, vol. 142, pp. 771-798, 2013.
    doi:10.2528/PIER13072702
   

 

Electromagnetic Modeling of Biological Tissues

 
 
The electromagnetic modeling of human tissues for biomedical purposes is a challenging task which usually requires large computational resources to take into account the complex properties and detailed structures of actual bodies. This is especially true if the modeling of tumor pathologies yielding anomalous microwave behaviour is of interest (as it happens for prostate cancer). In this framework, effective models have been recently proposed in order to enable the fast simulation of pathologies. Unfortunately, describing human bodies through traditional materials does not usually enable accurate modeling of the anomalous microwave response of pathological tissues. Accordingly, innovative electromagnetic models of biological tissues are of great importance in for the development of medical instruments working in the microwave range (e.g., tomography, radiotherapy).
   
Development of medical instruments working in microwave range, simulation and testing of innovative therapies (e.g., radiotherapy).

 

Electromagnetic Model Of The Abdomen
 
Members of the ELEDIA Research Center have developed innovative electromagnetic models for the effective simulation of biological tissues, which are based on the introduction of Metamaterial (MTM) inclusions in traditional numerical models. The motivation for this choice relies both on the microscopic structure of several tumor pathologies, which comprises "microfilaments" acting as resonators, as well as on the the observation of the macroscopic electromagnetic response of actual pathologies, which point out "EM focusing" properties typical of MTMs. The research activities carried out in this area have been focused on the mathematical modeling, implementation, and simulation of MTM-based models of biological tissues. Moreover, the exploitation of the developed models for inversion purposes is at present under investigation.

 
Simulation Of Traditional Model

 
Simulation Of Metamaterial-Based Model

Keywords: Metamaterials, Biological Tissue Modeling, Electromagnetic Interaction, Bioelectromagnetism


See Also
  • G. Oliveri, "Improving the reliability of frequency domain simulators in the presence of homogeneous metamaterials - a preliminary numerical assessment," Progress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 122, 497-518, 2012.
    doi:10.2528/PIER11100808
   

 

Smart Antennas for Next Generation Wireless Communications

 
 
Next generation wireless communication systems allowing a suitable quality of service (QoS) and an enhanced security are needed to properly deal with complex scenarios characterized by multiple users as well as different standards. In this framework, smart antennas have been recognized as promising tools for an efficient management of the physical layer thanks to their capability to steer the main lobe of the beam pattern to track the desired signal and cancel the interferences. Unfortunately, the methodological difficulties in controlling fully-adaptive solutions prevented a widespread application of smart antennas in current wireless communications. Accordingly, the development of robust, high-performance and computationally efficient control algorithm to reconfigure the smart antenna system in real time are currently of great interest from the scientific and industrial viewpoint.
   
Wireless Cellular Networks, WIFI Systems, Mobile Communications

 
Smart Antenna Prototype

 
Example Of Pattern Reconfiguration
 
Members of the ELEDIA Research Center have developed several optimization-based methodologies for the control of smart antenna systems, which are based on the exploitation of Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs). Such approaches are motivated by the fact that the real-time optimal control of smart antennas can be easily recasted as an optimization problem where the fitness function depends on the SINR and is continuously updated at each time-step to take into account the changing interference/environment conditions. More specifically, the research activities carried out in the ELEDIA Research Center have been focused on the study, development, and prototyping of fully-adaptive smart antenna systems controlled through EAs such as the Particle Swarm Optimization. Moreover, the application of Memory-Enhanced control strategies has been investigated as well.
   

Keywords: Smart Antennas, Next Generation Wireless Communications, Evolutionary Algorithms, Particle Swarm Optimizer, Adaptive Arrays.


See Also
  • M. Benedetti, R. Azaro, A. Massa, "Memory Enhanced PSO-Based Optimization Approach for Smart Antennas Control in Complex Interference Scenarios," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 56, no. 7, pp. 1939-1947, July 2008
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2008.924717
  • M. Benedetti, G. Oliveri, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "A fully-adaptive smart antenna prototype: ideal model and experimental validation in complex interference scenarios," Progress In Electromagnetics Research, vol. 96, 173-191, 2009.
    doi:10.2528/PIER09080904
  • M. Benedetti, R. Azaro, D. Franceschini, A. Massa, "PSO-Based Real-Time Control of Planar Uniform Circular Arrays," IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 545-548, Dec. 2006
    doi:10.1109/LAWP.2006.887553
  • M. Benedetti, R. Azaro, A. Massa, "Experimental validation of fully-adaptive smart antenna prototype," Electron. Lett., vol. 44, no. 11, pp. 661-662, May 2008
    doi:10.1049/el:20083689
  • M. Benedetti, G. Oliveri, M. Donelli, P. Rocca, A. Massa, "Experimental validation of a smart antenna system model," 2009 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium, pp.1-4, 1-5 June 2009
    doi:10.1109/APS.2009.5171473
  • M. Benedetti, P. Rocca, R. Azaro, A. Massa, "A fully-adaptive smart antenna prototype: Numerical modeling and experimental validation," 2008 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium, pp.1-4, 5-11 July 2008
    doi:10.1109/APS.2008.4619897
  • M. Benedetti, G. Oliveri, A. Massa, "Validation of a smart antenna prototype: Model and experiments," 2009 European Radar Conference, pp. 172-175, Sept. 30--2009-Oct. 2 2009
  • M. Benedetti, P. Rocca, M. Donelli, L. Lizzi, F. Viani, M. Martinelli, L. Ioriatti, A. Massa, "On the integration of smart antennas in Wireless Sensor Networks," 2008 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium, pp. 1-4, 5-11 July 2008
    doi:10.1109/APS.2008.4619571
  • L. Poli, P. Rocca, M. Salucci, and A. Massa, "Reconfigurable thinning for the adaptive control of linear arrays," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 61, no. 10, pp. 5068-5077, Oct. 2013.
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2013.2272452
   

 

Time-Modulation in Array Antenna Synthesis for New Generation Communication Systems

 
 
A modern antenna system should be able to maintain high quality communication links through a suitable modification of its operating conditions (i.e., radiation pattern and frequency band) to avoid jammings and interference signals from external sources. In this framework, time-modulated arrays have proved to be very flexible systems since they allow to reconfigure the radiated pattern just acting on the state (on/off) of a set of RF switches inserted in the feed network: thanks to these features, they can be considered as very good candidates for the new generation transmission systems controlled via software, the Software Defined Radio (SDR), since they allow to completely reconfigure the beam in a reliable and simple way through digital signals in function of the working scenario.
   
Satellite systems for wireless communications, radar applications, antenna for cellular base stations, earth observation

 

 
Pulse Sequence
 
Unfortunatly, the use of time-modulation technique in antenna array synthesis produces undesired radiations that correspond to a power wasting that affect array performance: to overcome this drawback, members of the ELEDIA Research Center have developed innovative strategies in order to get the suitable pulse sequences exciting the elements of the array that allow to synthesize a desired pattern at the work frequency minimizing the amount of wasted power in the sideband radiation. Several approaches based on the particle swarm optimization have been proposed in order to achieve the best compromise between the simplicity of reconfiguration of the system and the power loss, considering both communication and radar applications. Moreover, the possibility to exploit the sideband radiations for useful purposes have been investigated with the aim of synthesizing multi-beam patterns at different harmonic frequencies radiated by a single antenna system.

 
Antenna Sketch

 
Synthesized Beam Pattern

Keywords: Time-Modulation, Time-Modulated Arrays, Harmonic Beamforming, Adaptive Antenna Systems, Particle Swarm Optimization


See Also
  • L. Poli, P. Rocca, L. Manica, and A. Massa, "Handling sideband radiations in time-modulated arrays through particle swarm optimization," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 1408-1411, Apr. 2010. 
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2010.2041165
  • P. Rocca, L. Manica, L. Poli, and A. Massa, "Synthesis of compromise sum-difference arrays through time-modulation," IET Radar Sonar Navigation, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 630-637, Nov. 2009. 
    doi:10.1049/iet-rsn.2009.0058
  • L. Poli, P. Rocca, L. Manica, and A. Massa, "Time modulated planar arrays - analysis and optimisation of the sideband radiations," IET. Microw. Antennas & Propag., Vol. 4, Iss. 9, pp. 1165-1171, 2010. 
    doi:10.1049/iet-map.2009.0379
  • L. Poli, P. Rocca, L. Manica, and A. Massa, "Pattern synthesis in time-modulated linear arrays through pulse shifting," IET. Microw. Antennas & Propag., Vol. 4, Iss. 9, pp. 1157-1164, 2010. 
    doi:10.1049/iet-map.2009.0042
  • P. Rocca, L. Poli, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Synthesis of time-modulated planar arrays with controlled harmonic radiations," J. Of Electromagn. Waves and Appl., vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 827-838, 2010. 
    doi:10.1163/156939310791036304
  • L. Poli, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Adaptive nulling in time-modulated linear arrays with minimum power losses," IET. Microw. Antennas Propag., vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 157-166, 2011. 
    doi:10.1049/iet-map.2010.0015
  • P. Rocca, L. Poli, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Synthesis of Sub-Arrayed Time Modulated Linear Arrays Through a Multi-Stage Approach", IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 59, no. 9, pp. 3246-3254, Sep. 2011. 
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2011.2161535
  • L. Poli, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Harmonic beamforming in time-modulated linear arrays through particle swarm optimization," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 59, no. 7, pp. 2538-2545, Jul. 2011. 
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2011.2152323
  • L. Poli, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, “Failure correction in time-modulated linear arrays,” IET Radar, Sonar & Navigation, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 195-201, Mar. 2014.
    doi:10.1049/iet-rsn.2013.0027
  • P. Rocca, Q. Zhu, E. T. Bekele, S. Yang, and A. Massa, “4D arrays as enabling technology for cognitive radio systems,” IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation - Special Issue on “Antenna Systems and Propagation for Cognitive Radio,” vol. 62, no. 3, pp. 1102-1116, Mar. 2014.
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2013.2288109
  • E. T. Bekele, L. Poli, M. D'Urso, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "Pulse-shaping strategy for time modulated arrays - Analysis and design," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 61, no. 7, pp. 3525-3537, July 2013.
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2013.2256096
  • P. Rocca, L. Poli, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Adaptive nulling in time-varying scenarios through time-modulated linear arrays," IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 11, pp. 101-104, 2012.
    doi:10.1109/LAWP.2012.2183849
  • P. Rocca, L. Poli, and A. Massa, "Instantaneous directivity optimization in time-modulated array receivers," IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, vol. 6, no. 14, pp. 1590-1597, Nov. 2012.
    doi:10.1049/iet-map.2012.0400
  • P. Rocca, L. Poli, L. Manica, and A. Massa, "Synthesis of monopulse time-modulated planar arrays with controlled sideband radiation," IET Radar, Sonar & Navigation, vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 432-442, 2012.
    doi:10.1049/iet-rsn.2012.0005
  • L. Poli, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "Sideband radiation reduction exploiting pattern multiplication in directive time-modulated linear arrays," IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 214-222, 2012.
    doi:10.1049/iet-map.2011.0159
   

 

Healthcare Monitoring

 
 
Healthcare systems require new technologies and services in order to provide high quality of life for elderly people with affordable costs. Towards this end, instruments able to continuously monitor the health status in a non-invasive way have to be implemented. In this framework, a fundamental objective is represented by the capability to allow independent living through automatic activity recognition and detection of anomalies in human behaviors.
   
Ambient Assisted Living Apartments, Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Rehabilitation Centers


Healthcare Monitoring
Warning Detection

Patient Position Monitoring
Activity Estimation
 

Members of the ELEDIA Research Center implemented the concept of passive healthcare monitoring exploiting the theoretical background of the inverse scattering theory and the advantages of distributed sensing through pervasive wireless infrastructures like wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The proposed monitoring approaches avoid the use of active and wearable devices thus reducing the system complexity and invasiveness. Elderly people and patients will benefit of the following passive monitoring characteristics:

  1. continuous activity monitoring that provides the user with versatility, safety and privacy;
  2. real-time detection of anomalies and warning signal transmission to a remote control unit;
  3. reduced system maintenance and complexity thanks to the absence of wearable sensors.

Research activities in the field of Healthcare monitoring have been mainly focused on the exploitation of information available through the widely diffused wireless infrastructures in order to provide simple and reliable monitoring services. The proposed procedures and algorithms have been verified both in controlled environments as well as in experimental test-beds.
 
 
 
 

Keywords: Healthcare, Ambient Assisted Living, Passive Monitoring, Activity Estimation, Wireless Sensor Networks


See Also
  • F. Viani, L. Lizzi, P. Rocca, M. Benedetti, M. Donelli, and A. Massa, "Object tracking through RSSI measurements in wireless sensor networks," Electronic Letters, vol. 44, no. 10, pp. 653-654, May 2008.
  • F. Viani, P. Rocca, M. Benedetti, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Electromagnetic passive localization and tracking of moving targets in a WSN-infrastructured environment," Inverse Problems - Special Issue on "Electromagnetic Inverse Problems: Emerging Methods and Novel Applications," vol. 26, pp.1-15, 2010.
  • F. Viani, M. Donelli, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, D. Trinchero, and A. Massa, "Localization, tracking and imaging of targets in wireless sensor networks," Radio Science, Vol. 46, No. 5, 2011.
  • F. Viani, L. Lizzi, M. Benedetti, M. Martinelli, L. Ioriatti, and A. Massa, "A RSSI-based method for real-time object localization in wireless sensor networks," Proc. European Conference on Wireless Sensor Networks 2008 (EWSN 2008), Bologna, Italy, Juanuary 30 - February 01, 2008.
  • F. Viani, M. Martinelli, L. Ioriatti, L. Lizzi, G. Oliveri, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "Real-time indoor localization and tracking of passive targets by means of wireless sensor networks," Proc. 2009 IEEE AP-S International Symposium, Charleston, SC, USA, June 1-5, 2009.
  • F. Viani, M. Martinelli, L. Ioriatti, M. Benedetti, and A. Massa, "Passive real- time localization through wireless sensor networks," Proc. 2009 IEEE International Symposium on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Cape Town, South Africa, July 13-17, 2009.
  • F. Viani, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Electromagnetic tracking of transceiver-free targets in wireless networked environments,'' Proc. 2011 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP2011), Rome, Italy, April 11-15, 2011.
  • F. Viani, F. Robol, A. Polo, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Wireless architectures for heterogeneous sensing in smart home applications - concepts and real implementations," Proc. IEEE, vol. 101, no. 11, pp. 2381-2396, Nov. 2013.
    doi:10.1109/JPROC.2013.2266858
   

 

Direction of Arrival Estimation through Learning by Examples (LBE) Algorithms

 
 
The real-time knowledge of the direction of arrival (DOA) of the signals impinging on an antenna receiver enables the use of adaptive control algorithms suitable for limiting the effects of interferences and improve the performance of the wireless communication system. The use of LBE Algorithms provides high computational efficiency for real-time computing essential in many application scenarios.
   
Mobile wireless communications, time varying scenarios, localization and tracking systems

 
Mobile Communications 

System Architectur antenna e
P lanar Antenna Geometry
 

Approaches based on regression and classification have been developed by members of the ELEDIA Research Center exploiting the generalization capabilities of learning by example methodologies like neural networks (NN) and support vector machine (SVM) for the online DOA estimation of single and multiple signals. Multi-resolution strategies have been also suitably defined in order to further increase the performance of the proposed approaches, thus leading to

  1. enhanced angular resolution of the detection process in the region of incidence of the impinging signals;
  2. real-time evaluation of single and multiple DOAs through the definition of probabilities that a signal impinges on the antenna array. Both linear and planar geometries have been investigated;
  3. high robustness in case of noisy data thanks to the generalization capabilities of the adopted methods.

Research activities concerning the DOA estimation have been focused in the mathematical formulation of the training and testing procedures of LBE algorithms. The antenna geometries have been modeled and the corresponding received signals have been defined in order to efficiently evaluate the signal covariance matrix. Moreover, feature selection strategies have been introduced in order to extract as much information as possible from the available data.
Estimated 2-D DOAs
Image To be Changed

Keywords: Direction of Arrival Estimation, Learning by Examples, SVM, Mobile Communications


See Also
  • M. Donelli, F. Viani, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "An innovative multi-resolution approach for DOA estimation based on a support vector classification," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 57, no. 8, pp. 2279-2292, August 2009.
  • L. Lizzi, F. Viani, M. Benedetti, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "The M-DSO-ESPRIT method for maximum likelihood DoA estimation," Progress in Electromagnetic Research, vol. 80, pp. 477-497, 2008.
  • M. Donelli, R. Azaro, L. Lizzi, F. Viani, and A. Massa, "A SVM-based multi-resolution procedure for the estimation of the DOAs of interfering signals in a communication system," Proc. European Conference on Antennas & Propagation (EuCAP), Nice, France, 6-10 November, 2006.
  • M. Benedetti, P. Rocca, M. Donelli, L. Lizzi, F. Viani, M. Martinelli, L. Ioriatti and A. Massa, "On the integration of smart antennas in wireless sensor networks," Proc. 2008 IEEE AP -S International Symposium, San Diego, USA, July 5-11, 2008.
   

 

Detection, Density Estimation and Tracking of Crowds

 
 
Crowds monitoring can be of critical relevance, expecially when dealing with large scale locations, such as airports, supermarkets and stadiums, where crowds tend to appear for many different reasons. The use of automated techniques for monitoring crowds, such as estimating a crowd’s density, tracking its movements (and even observing its behaviour) is nowadays necessary in a large number of applications. In fact, areas where people are likely to cluster (e.g. an airport) need careful observation to ensure crowd safety (i.e. ensuring a fast and safe evacuation in case of danger, distributing people over all the available security doors). Crowd density estimation and detection can be of fundamental relevance also when dealing with marketing strategies and investigations, where the ability to observe people concentrations (e.g. inside a supermarket, in correspondence to the exposition of a brand new product) directly translates into an analysis of people main interests. Moreover, in some applications people monitoring through classical video surveillance systems (e.g. CCTV) may not be the proper choice, or in some cases it may even be not feasible (e.g for privacy reasons). In those scenarios, it would be of great interesest the use of the avaliable wireless infrastructure to infer informations about crowd density and movements, by simply analyzing the electromagnetic field distribution inside a wide area.
   
Large scale locations, airports, supermarkets, stadiums


Airport
Supermarket
 
Members of the ELEDIA Research Center have developed several techniques for the simulation of the electromagnetic field distribution in very-large scale crowded locations. The basic idea is to apply the concepts of Device-Free Localization (DFL) and Tracking when dealing with a big number of targets, which are spread over a wide area (indoor or outdoor). As a matter of fact, people inside a scenario under test interact with the electromagnetic signals transmitted by the infrastructured wireless devices (e.g. the Wi-Fi access points), thus modifying the received signal strength by each device. The crowd detection and tracking problem can then be reformulated in terms of a simplified electromagnetic inverse scattering problem, which is carried out by means of a learning-by-example (LBE) strategy.
   
E-Field distribution over a wide area
Probability map of crowd density inside a wide area

Keywords: Crowd Density Estimation, Device-Free Passive Localization, Crowd Detection, Crowd Tracking


See Also
  • F. Viani, L. Lizzi, P. Rocca, M. Benedetti, M. Donelli, and A. Massa, "Object tracking through RSSI measurements in wireless sensor networks," Electronics Letters, vol. 44, no. 10, pp. 653-654, May 8 2008
    doi: 10.1049/el:20080509
  • F. Viani, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Real-time tracking of transceiver-free objects for homeland security," European Radar Conference (EuRAD 2009), pp.621-624, Sept. 30 2009-Oct. 2 2009
  • F. Viani, M. Donelli, M. Salucci, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "Opportunistic exploitation of wireless infrastructures for homeland security," 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (APSURSI), pp. 3062-3065, 3-8 July 2011
    doi: 10.1109/APS.2011.5997177
  • F. Viani, M. Salucci, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, A. Massa, "A multi-sensor WSN backbone for museum monitoring and surveillance," 6th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP 2012), Prague, CZ, pp. 51-52, 26-30 Mar. 2012.
    doi:10.1109/EuCAP.2012.6206050
  • G. Menduni, F. Viani, F. Robol, E. Giarola, A. Polo, G. Oliveri, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "A WSN-based architecture for the E-Museum - The experience at 'Sala dei 500' in Palazzo Vecchio (Florence)," IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium (APSURSI 2013), Orlando, FL, United States, pp. 1114-1115, 7-13 Jul. 2013.
    doi:10.1109/APS.2013.6711217
   

 

Multiband and Wideband Antennas

 
 
A large number of electronic devices exploits multiple wireless standards in modern mobile applications. The dimensions of such products (e.g., mobile handsets) are becoming smaller and smaller following the users’ needs and thanks to the progress of the modern integrated circuit technology. In this framework, it is usually necessary to integrate the RF-part (i.e., the different wireless interfaces) in only one antenna, thus yielding to multi-standard antennas. The design of these radiating systems is highly challenging since a high degree of miniaturization is also required.
In such a framework, fractal shapes have been proposed as a suitable solution for both miniaturization and multi-band issues, while spline-based shapes have been demonstrated very good Ultra-Wideband (UWB) properties.
   
Mobile handsets, smartphones, multi-purpose portable devices

Multiband S11 behaviour
Wideband S11 behaviour
   

 

 
 
Members of the ELEDIA Research Center have developed several cutting edge design approaches for the synthesis of miniaturized perturbed fractal multi-band and spline UWB antennas, based on the exploitation of Evolutionary Optimization, whose capability to deal with electromagnetic problems has been widely demonstrated. This kind of approach enables the formulation of the synthesis problem in terms of an optimization one, which is usually casted either in the time or in the frequency domain (depending on the specific application), where a set of unknown representative geometrical descriptors are tuned through an iterative process aimed at fitting suitable requirements/constraints on the electrical behavior in the desired band(s). The features of the arising designs have been also widely demonstrated through the fabrication and measurement of printed antenna prototypes, which is done in the ELEDIA Research Center facilities.
Fractal-based multi-band geometry
Spline-based UWB geometry

Keywords: Multi-band Antennas, UWB Antennas, Fractal, Spline, Mobile Handsets, Smartphones, Portable Devices, Evolutionary Design


See Also
  • M. D. Migliore, D. Pinchera, A. Massa, R. Azaro, F. Schettino, and L. Lizzi, “An investigation on UWB-MIMO communication systems based on an experimental channel characterization,” IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 56, no. 9, pp. 3081-3083, September 2008.
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2008.928814
  • L. Lizzi, F. Viani, R. Azaro, and A. Massa, “A PSO-driven spline-based shaping approach for ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna synthesis,” IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 56, no. 8, pp. 2613-2621, August 2008.
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2008.927544
  • L. Lizzi, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, “Planar monopole UWB antenna with WLAN-band notched characteristics,” Progress in Electromagnetic Research B, vol. 25, pp. 277–292, 2010.
    doi:10.2528/PIERB10080511
  • L. Lizzi, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, “A time-domain approach to the synthesis of UWB antenna systems,” Progress in Electromagnetic Research, vol. 122, pp. 557-575, 2012.
    doi:10.2528/PIER11103003
  • L. Lizzi and A. Massa, “Dual-band printed fractal monopole antenna for LTE applications,” IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 10, pp. 760-763, 2011.
    doi:10.1109/LAWP.2011.2163051
  • L. Lizzi, R. Azaro, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, “Multiband fractal antenna for wireless communication systems for emergency management,” Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 1-11, 2012.
    doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156939312798954865
  • L. Lizzi and G. Oliveri, “Hybrid design of a fractal-shaped GSM/UMTS antenna,” Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, vol. 24, no.5/6, pp. 707-719, March 2010.
    doi:10.1163/156939310791036386
  • L. Lizzi, R. Azaro, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Printed UWB antenna operating over multiple mobile wireless standards," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 10, pp. 1429-1432, 2011.
    doi:10.1109/LAWP.2011.2179631
  • L. Lizzi, F. Viani, R. Azaro, and A. Massa, "Design of a miniaturized planar antenna for FCC-UWB communication systems," Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, vol. 50, no. 7, pp. 1975-1978, Jul. 2008.  
    doi:10.1002/mop.23519
  • F. Viani, L. Lizzi, R. Azaro, and A. Massa, "A miniaturized UWB antenna for wireless dongle devices," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 7, pp. 714-717, 2008.
    doi:10.1109/LAWP.2008.2002904
  • F. Viani, L. Lizzi, R. Azaro, and A. Massa, "Spline-shaped ultra-wideband antenna operating in the ECC released frequency spectrum," Electronics Letters, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 7-8, Jan. 2008.
    doi:10.1049/el:20082840
  • L. Lizzi, F. Viani, R. Azaro, and A. Massa, "Optimization of a spline-shaped UWB antenna by PSO," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 6, pp. 182-185, 2007.
    doi:10.1109/LAWP.2007.894157
  • F. Viani, "Dual-band sierpinski pre-fractal antenna for 2.4GHz-WLAN and 800MHz-LTE wireless devices," Progress In Electromagnetics Research C, vol. 35, pp. 63-71, 2013.
    doi:10.2528/PIERC12101204
  • F. Viani, M. Salucci, F. Robol, and A. Massa, "Multiband fractal Zigbee/WLAN antenna for ubiquitous wireless environments," Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, vol. 26, no. 11-12, pp. 1554-1562. 2012.
    doi:10.1080/09205071.2012.704553  
  • R. Azaro, L. Debiasi, E. Zeni, M. Benedetti, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "A hybrid prefractal three-band antenna for multi-standard mobile wireless applications," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 8, pp. 905-908, 2009.
    doi:10.1109/LAWP.2009.2028627  
  • L. Lizzi, F. Viani, and A. Massa, "Dual-band spline-shaped PCB antenna for Wi-Fi applications," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 8, pp. 616-619, 2009.
    doi:10.1109/LAWP.2009.2021993
    R. Azaro, F. Viani, L. Lizzi, E. Zeni, and A. Massa, "A monopolar quad-band antenna based on a Hilbert self-affine pre-fractal geometry," IEEE Antennas and Wireless
  • Propagation Letters, vol. 8, pp. 177-180, 2009.
    doi:10.1109/LAWP.2008.2001428 
  • L. Lizzi, F. Viani, E. Zeni, and A. Massa, "A DVBH/GSM/UMTS planar antenna for multimode wireless devices," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 8, pp. 616-619, 2009.
    doi:10.1109/LAWP.2009.2022962
  • R. Azaro, E. Zeni, P. Rocca, and A. Massa, "Innovative design of a planar fractal-shaped GPS/GSM/Wi-Fi antenna," Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 825-829, Mar. 2008.
    doi:10.1002/mop.23208
   

 

Subsurface Imaging and Detection

 
 
Subsurface sensing through electromagnetic interrogating waves has been widely employed in the last few years in applications such as mine detection, archeological analysis, natural resources exploration, and NDE/NDT of structures and pavements. Nevertheless, real-time reliable processing techniques able to automatically detect relevant features in electromagnetic backscattered data are still not available, because of the inherent complexity of the problem at hand. Accordingly, the development of inverse scattering techniques specifically targeted at the detection of subsurface anomalies (e.g., landmines) is of great interest.
   
Landmine detection, Earth Science, environmental remediation, archeological analysis, geophysical investigation.

 
 

 

 
 
 
Members of the ELEDIA Research Center have developed several techniques for the detection and classification of buried object based on the learning-by-example paradigm. More specifically, the study, derivation, and testing of inverse scattering approaches based on Support Vector Machines (SVM) has been carried out in order to enable the real-time classification of multiple buried targets and determination of the probability of occurrence of relevant objects in the investigation domain.
 

 

Keywords: Subsurface Imaging, Support Vector Machines, Learning-by-Example Techniques, Inverse Scattering Problem, Pattern Classification.


See Also
  • A. Massa, Boni, A.; M. Donelli, "A Classification Approach Based on SVM for Electromagnetic Subsurface Sensing," IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 43, no. 9, pp. 2084-2093, Sept. 2005 doi:10.1109/TGRS.2005.853186
  • L. Lizzi, F. Viani, P. Rocca, G. Oliveri, M. Benedetti, A. Massa, "Three-dimensional real-time localization of subsurface objects - From theory to experimental validation," 2009 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, vol. 2, pp.II-121-II-124, 12-17 July 2009 doi:10.1109/IGARSS.2009.5418018
  • M. Donelli, M. Benedetti, Lesselier, D.; A. Massa, "A qualitative two-step inversion approach for the reconstruction of subsurface defects," 2009 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, vol. 4, pp.IV-224-IV-227, 12-17 July 2009 doi:10.1109/IGARSS.2009.5417331
  • M. Donelli, M. Benedetti, P. Rocca, Melgani, F.; A. Massa, "Three dimensional electromagnetic sub-surface sensing by means of a multi-step SVM-based classification technique," 2007 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium, pp.1801-1804, 9-15 June 2007 doi:10.1109/APS.2007.4395866
   

 

3G and 4G Radio Network Planning

 
 
A key issue for cellular operators is the planning or re-configuration of radio base stations (BTSs) for fitting user requirements and guaranteeing a suitable quality of service (QoS). Time-varying scenarios as well as different and variable user needs require flexible and fast planners easy to use. Towards this end, the combination of reliable models able to predict the actual coverage of 3G and 4G networks with computationally-efficient optimizers is of great intrest in order to automatically configure large networks and achieve optimal performances in terms of throughput, served users, and bandwidth re-use.
   
Large Cellular Networks, WiFi Networks, 3G/4G Mixed Networks

 


 
 
Starting from models proposed in the literature, members of the ELEDIA Research Center have developed innovative stochastic radio planners able to deduce the optimal configuration of large 3G and 4G networks. Unlike standard planning tools, such approaches consider a set of requirements expressed in terms of communication traffic over the region of interest and they determine the corresponding optimal setup able to guarantee the required throughput. More specifically, the research activities carried out in this area have been focused on the development of ad-hoc Evolutionary algorithms and their integration with state-of-the-art coverage models in order to automatically plan the network configuration for large sites (several hundreds BTSs).

 
Coverge Probability Before Optimization

 
Coverge Probability After Optimization

Keywords: Cellular networks, Evolutionary Algorithms, 3G and 4G Networks, Radio Planning, Next Generation Wireless Communications

 

Additional Material

VELA Project

See Also

  • L. Manica, G. Oliveri, G. Ruscitti, L. Gandini, and A. Massa, "An innovative and reliable tool for the electromagnetic prediction in UMTS scenarios," PIERS 2011 in Marrakesh, Marrakesh, Morocco, Mar. 20-23, 2011.
   

 

Metamaterial Engineering

 
 
The extraordinary interest in electromagnetic Metamaterials is due to their unique capabilities to modify the propagation of the electromagnetic fields, which allows the design of innovative applications which were never before thought possible. Indeed, such "unique" features are at present being studied for the development of promising technologies with applications to several fields including public health, biomedicine, communications, security, aerospace, remote sensing, distributed monitoring, and public safety. Such applications, which cover the entire electromagnetic spectrum (from RF to optical wavelengths), include "perfect" imaging lenses with a negative index of refraction, cloaks of invisibility, miniaturized resonator antennas, thin frequency selective surfaces, as well as compact devices such as wave collimators, bends and rotators. However, it is well known that bandwidth and loss limitations represent an inherent drawback of many Metamaterial devices based on resonant structures. Accordingly, the availability of design techniques able to yield to Metamaterial-based broadband devices is of great interest from the scientific and industrial viewpoint.
   
Public health, Biomedicine, Communications, Security, Aerospace, Remote Sensing, Distributed Monitoring, and Public Safety.


 


 
 

Members of the ELEDIA Research Center are working on the development of several innovative devices based on metamaterials, including

  1. Multiband and wideband microstrip antennas exploiting Metamaterial substrates.
  2. Microwave and optical cloaking applications.
  3. Miniaturized field concentrators.
  4. Compact polarization rotators.
  5. Miniaturized beam splitters and collimators.
  6. Flat focusing lenses.

The research activities carried out in this area are specifically focused on the study, development, prototyping, and testing of innovative engineering applications based on the unique properties of electromagnetic Metamaterials with the purpose of bridging the gap between the already available theoretical results and the realization of reliable technologies.

Keywords: Metamaterials, Advanced Materials, Cloaking, Miniaturized Antennas, Wireless Communications, Biomedicine, Negative refraction.


See Also
  • E. Lier, D. H. Werner, C. P. Scarborough, Q. Wu and J. A. Bossard, "An octave-bandwidth negligible-loss radiofrequency metamaterial," Nature Materials, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 216-222, March 2011.
  • D.-H. Kwon and D. H. Werner, "Transformation electromagnetics: An overview of the theory and its application", IEEE Antennas Propag. Mag., vol. 52, pp. 24-46, 2010.
  • D.-H. Kwon and D. H. Werner, "Transformation optical designs for wave collimators, flat lenses, and right-angle bends," New J. Phys., vol. 10, pp. 115023/1-13, 2008.
  • G. Oliveri, E. T. Bekele, D. H. Werner, J. P. Turpin, and A. Massa, “Generalized QCTO for metamaterial-lens-coated conformal arrays,” IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, in press.
  • G. Oliveri, P. Rocca, M. Salucci, E. T. Bekele, A. Massa and D. H. Werner, "Design and synthesis of innovative metamaterial-enhanced arrays," IEEE International Symposium on Antennas Propag. (APSURSI 2013), Orlando, Florida, USA, Jul. 7-12, 2013.
    doi:10.1109/APS.2013.6711145
  • G. Oliveri, "Improving the reliability of frequency domain simulators in the presence of homogeneous metamaterials - A preliminary numerical assessment," Progress In Electromagnetics Research, vol. 122, pp. 497-518, 2012.
    doi:10.2528/PIER11100808.

 

Sparse arrays synthesis by means of Bayesian Compressive Sensing (BCS)

 
 
Many applications including radio base stations, television broadcasting and satellite communications require the design of antennas exhibiting radiating performances that cannot be obtained by a single antenna. In order to satisfy these design constraints, it is thus necessary to employ antenna arrays (i.e. antennas composed by a large number of radiating elements). However, since severe limitations are usually enfoced on the cost, the weight and the hardware and software complexity of the radiating system, the designed arrays must often comprise a minimum number of elements. This objective can be accomplished by using, instead of a regular arrangement, a properly designed non-uniform antenna layout.
   
Satellite systems for wireless communications, astronomic observations, navigation, and earth and weather observation, antennas for base stations and television broadcasting.

 
Satellite Regional Coverage

 
Weather Observation
 

The activities of the members of the ELEDIA Research Center are focused on the development of innovative strategies for the design of sparse antenna arrays. In order to achieve this objective, a method based on the exploitation of Bayesian Compressive Sensing (BCS) has been developed and applied to:

  1. The synthesis of arrays characterized by different layouts (e.g linear and planar arrays).
  2. The design of antenna arrays with pencil beam and shaped patterns.
  3. The synthesis of arrays imposing geometrical constraints on the elements displacement (e.g. "holes" in the array layout).

The developed methodology allows the numerical-efficient synthesis of large antenna arrays with a high saving in terms of array elements compared with analogous state-the-art techniques for the synthesis of uniformly-spaced antenna arrays.

 
Synthesized Beam Pattern

 
Sparse Array Geometry

Keywords: Array Synthesis, Sparse arrays, Bayesian Compressive Sampling


See Also
  • G. Oliveri and A. Massa, "Bayesian compressive sampling for pattern synthesis with maximally sparse non-uniform linear arrays," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 467-481, Feb. 2011. doi:10.1109/TAP.2010.2096400
  • G. Oliveri, M. Carlin, and A. Massa, "Complex-Weight Sparse Linear Array Synthesis by Bayesian Compressive Sampling," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 60, no. 5, pp. 2309-2326, May 2012.
  • G. Oliveri, E. T. Bekele, F. Robol, and A. Massa, "Sparsening conformal arrays through a versatile BCS-based method," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 1681-1689, Apr. 2014.
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2013.2287894
  • F. Viani, G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Compressive sensing pattern matching techniques for synthesizing planar sparse arrays," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 61, no. 9, pp. 4577-4587, Sept. 2013.
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2013.2267195.
   

 

Thinned Arrays for Space Applications

 
 
Large antenna arrays are of great importance in applications such as satellite communications and remote sensing where a high gain, low sidelobe levels, and controlled beam shapes are required. Unfortunately, such applicative frameworks impose severe constraints on the weight of the antenna system, owing to the very large cost per kilogram launched in orbit. Accordingly, solutions to reduce the weight of large antenna arrays while mantaining good radiation performance are of great importance in space engineering.
   
Satellite systems for wireless communications, astronomic observations, navigation, and earth and weather observation


 
 

Members of the ELEDIA Research Center have developed several analytical design approaches for the synthesis of large thinned arrays, which are based on the exploitation of Almost Difference Sets (ADS). The enabling features of these binary sequences include

  1. their analytical nature and their availability for arrangements comprising several thousands elements both in linear and planar displacement, which guarantee an high design efficiency whatever the aperture size;
  2. their predictable autocorrelation function, which allows the derivation of suitable bounds for the peak sidelobe level of the synthesized arrangements;
  3. their massively thinned nature, which can be exploited to significantly reduce the number of radiating elements with respect to fully populated layouts.

The research activities carried out in this area have been focused on the mathematical derivation, study, and development of ADS-based design techniques for linear and planar thinned arrays. Moreover, their extension has been also considered by means of hybrid analytical-stochastic methodologies.
Synthesized beam pattern
Thinned array geometry

Keywords: Thinned arrays, Almost Difference Sets, Space, Satellite Communications, Analytic Design


See Also
  • G. Oliveri, M. Donelli, and A. Massa, "Genetically-designed arbitrary length almost difference sets," Electron. Lett., vol. 45, no. 23, pp. 1182-1183, Nov. 2009.
    doi:10.1049/el.2009.1927
  • G. Oliveri, M. Donelli, and A. Massa, "Linear Array Thinning Exploiting Almost Difference Sets," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 57, no. 12, pp. 3800-3812, Dec. 2009.
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2009.2027243
  • G. Oliveri, L. Manica, and A. Massa, "ADS-Based Guidelines for Thinned Planar Arrays," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 58, no. 6, pp. 1935-1948, Jun. 2010.
    doi:10.1109/TAP.2010.2046858
  • G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "ADS-based array design for 2-D and 3-D ultrasound imaging," IEEE Trans. Ultrasonics Ferroelectrics Freq. Control, vol. 57, no. 7, pp. 1568-1582, Jul. 2010.
    doi:10.1109/TUFFC.2010.1587
  • G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Fully interleaved linear arrays with predictable sidelobes based on almost difference sets," IET Radar Sonar Navigat., vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 649-661, Oct. 2010.
    doi:10.1049/iet-rsn.2009.0186
  • G. Oliveri, and A. Massa, "Genetic algorithm (GA)-enhanced almost difference set (ADS)-based approach for array thinning," IET Microwave Antennas Propag., vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 305-315, Feb. 21 2011.
    doi:10.1049/iet-map.2010.0114
  • P. Rocca, "Large Array Thinning by Means of Deterministic Binary Sequences," IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 10, pp. 334-337, 2011.
    doi:10.1109/LAWP.2011.2142290
  • G. Oliveri, F. Caramanica, and A. Massa, "Hybrid ADS-Based Techniques for Radio Astronomy Array Design," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 59, no. 6, pp. 1817-1827, Jun. 2011.
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